This cigarette box belonged to Pieter Rogers (1926-2006), General Manager of the Chichester Festival Theatre from 1961 until 1964. When Rogers was working with the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre from 1958, he met Laurence Olivier who was in the process of setting up the Festival Theatre. He persuaded Rogers to join him in 1961 and the theatre opened on 3 July 1962 with the Jacobean comedy The Chances. That he was held in great esteem by his colleagues is reflected in the choice of this specially commissioned and designed gift with which he was presented when he left to work in television, after three years at the theatre. The gift was accompanied by a scrapbook containing programmes of the productions under his tenure, autographs of his friends and colleagues, a photograph of the theatre and a message of 'love, congratulation and gratitude' from Laurence Olivier.

Chichester Festival Theatre was designed by the British architect Philip Powell who, with the American John Hidalgo Moya, made up the architectural practice Powell and Moya. They were also the architects of the Skylon on London's South Bank, built for the 1951 Festival of Britain celebrations.